


Refuge at First Light

by deandratb



Series: Too Much Hurt For This Heart [2]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, lighter fluffier sequel because i feel like josh deserved it, this one really just exists because i didn't feel done playing with them yet, well...as light and fluffy as a fic can be when it's set the day after noah lyman's death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 22:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12142749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: The morning after he brought his grief to her doorstep.“Somebody has to manage your life," she told him gently. "Today that person is me."





	Refuge at First Light

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimed. I have no idea if I'm done with this timeline or if I'll spin it into a full-on AU. I like writing them during the original campaign.

When Josh woke up, he sucked in air like someone bursting through the surface of a lake. _Nightmare?_ Donna wondered. She hadn’t dreamed at all, sleeping in uncomfortable patches while she remained Josh’s pillow.

 _A reasonable person would get up and go to bed,_ she had scolded herself a half-dozen times throughout the night. _He was hurting, and she’d promised,_ another part of her argued back. Remembering just how lost he had looked, that part of her won every time.

Josh scrubbed his hands over his face, then left them there to block out the light. “Whurmey?”

Donna stood up and brushed off her pajama pants, calculating that he’d only gotten about three hours sleep. “What was that?”

“Where am I.” He removed his hands and blinked hard a few times, eyes dark and puffy. Then he smiled, just a little, when he recognized her. It was a defeated, hollow smile that made something inside her tilt and crack. “Oh. Hey."

“Hey.” She smiled back, trying to keep hers steady. “How are you feeling?”

He let his eyes fall shut again. “Like a dozen elephants are tap-dancing on my brain.”

“Sounds about right. Let me see what we can do about that.” 

She left him there, mentally cursing the rotation of the planet. “Does it have to be so bright in here?”

Donna’s voice echoed back as she shut her fridge. “In the morning? Yes. I can’t control the sun, Josh.”

The clattering noises coming from the kitchen made him wince. Knowing it was in his head didn’t stop him from wanting to beg her to keep it down.

Here.” She returned to set a glass of maroon sludge in front of him on the coffee table. 

Josh eyed it narrowly. “Hangover cure?”

“Family recipe,” she agreed. Looking as fresh as a spring day, reminding him just how awful he felt in comparison, she headed back into the kitchen.

He couldn’t reach the glass without sitting up, which proved more difficult than usual. The room spun around faster than the Tilt-A-Whirl he’d loved as a kid, forcing him to wait until it stopped.

“Oh, god.” With nausea and dizziness came the return of his dignity, such as it was. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

Brow furrowed, she stopped pulling ingredients out of the cupboard. “Why not?”

“Inappropriate.” He attempted sitting up a second time and managed it, groaning with the effort. 

“Practical,” Donna countered over her shoulder. “What would you have done if you hadn’t--circle D.C. all night in a cab?”

Choosing not to answer, Josh took the mud-colored drink off the table. He sipped tentatively, then decided gulping was the only way he would be able to get it down. “What’s in this exactly?”

“Little of this, little of that.” She returned just long enough to shoot him a knowing grin. “The less you know, the easier it’ll be to drink.”

Holding very still, he obediently chugged what was left and prayed it would act quickly.

“I'll be right out as soon as I'm done working on breakfast.”

Josh’s stomach lurched and he gulped hard against the bile rising up from it. “Please don’t mention food.”

She pointed a wooden spoon at him. “In approximately twenty minutes, you’re going to start feeling better. Then you’ll be thanking me for my benevolent offer.”

“Hey. C’mere.”

She stopped her food prep and came back to the living room. “I showed up drunk on your doorstep at 3 a.m. Then I fell asleep **on** you. Why are you making me breakfast?”

Donna shrugged, as though his behavior was totally normal. Eyebrows raised, he waited for more. 

“Somebody has to manage your life," she told him gently. "Today that person is me. You’re not up to it...and you shouldn’t expect to be right now. So here’s the plan.”

“I’m going to make waffles, which are the second half of the legendary Moss hangover cure. You’re going to eat at least two,” she ordered with a sunny smile. “Then you’re going to shower and clear your head.”

He looked down at his rumpled clothes. “And after that I’m leaving wearing what exactly? I don’t think your blouses will fit me.”

“Remember I told you my roommate and her fiance broke up? You can borrow something of his to head home in.” 

She interrupted his reply before he began. “You’re not going to work today, Josh. I already spoke to Leo while you were still passed out. You have the day off to make arrangements to see your mom and do whatever else you need to do. I’ll head back with you and help you pack. It’s all been arranged.”

Feeling sick and disgruntled, he wanted to argue just for the sake of arguing, but there was no point. With Donna and Leo united against him, he’d have a better chance fighting a brick wall.

“Alright then.” He leaned back. “I’m just going to...sit here, for a while.”

“You do that.”

Josh was asleep again by the time she finished mixing the waffle batter, and she paused in the dining room, deciding not to disturb him right away. 

If he was lucky in his dreams, his father was still alive and with him. _Breakfast could wait a little while longer._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for the compliments on the beginning of this series--I was worried about how it had turned out and they gave me the confidence to keep going.


End file.
